This according to the guys at HDguru, who proclaimed the new $2,600 set was easily the "New King of HDTVs." In some cases, they said, the Panasonic was able to best the Kuro.

The V10 distinction carries with it the same NEO PDP panel as its cousins in the recently released G10 plasma line, but adds in a bevy of new software and hardware features, including three color modes, a thinner profile (1.1″ deep at top and 3.3″ middle), and a 96Hz refresh rate for 24Hz sources. The V10 line currently comes in 50 and 54-in. models, with larger 58 and 65-inchers due out in August.

And lest you still remain on the fence about this HDTV, know that HDGuru changed their frickin review system from four to five hearts to accommodate all the wonderful new awesomeness provided by Panasonic in this pricey new HDTV. [HDGuru]

I ran across this scene today outside Park Avenue Audio on 29th and Park in Manhattan—a shop that caters to A/V junkies (I bought my Grado SR60s there), and it's a shipment fresh from Japan. The guys at Park Ave. say that it's becoming quite a battle to secure whatever Kuro inventory remains, but they've got a source that should keep them in Kuros for at least a little longer.

If you're just joining us, Pioneer's Kuros have been the King of All Plasmas for the last several years, with blacks blacker than the depths of cold space. Park Avenue is moving the final generation Elite Pro 111FD 50-inchers for $3,500 and the 60-inchers for $5,000, which is a bit of a markup from the best prices you could find online right now (from the few retailers that still have any stock), but not horrible for an audiophile-centric brick and mortar. Those prices are sure to go up as supply becomes scarcer, though, so if you want to save this dodo from extinction before you'll have to proffer some rare golden doubloons for the privilege, act fast.

We've known Pioneer's been having a hard time of things lately, especially when they confirmed they were leaving the plasma manufacturing business. They hitched their wagon to Panasonic, the leading plasma manufacturer, but apparently Panny just delayed the opening of a new factory, citing economic strains. So you can see how the #2 would get shoved aside, if all of Panasonic's capacity is tied up with its own product.

As for its DVD and Blu-ray group, the Nikkei says it plans to merge that with a division from Sharp as some sort of new business venture.

Gary Merson at HDGuru had been sniffing around this story, and today, Nikkei confirmed it with a report of its own. [HDGuru]

UPDATE: Here's Pioneer's official non-response to the news:

As a matter of policy, we cannot comment on rumors or speculation. As you know, we have publicly announced that we are actively evaluating our business. We started announcing changes in March, 2008 to increase efficiencies of our business operations. We are still in that process but do not have any further announcements at this time.

It's not every day that you get to check out the world's thinnest LCD HDTV, let alone all three "ultrathins" currently in production, but that's what's going down. Sharp's super insane new flagship, the Limited Edition Aquos LC-65XS1U-S, arrived at my door in a bulletproof shipping container, 138 pounds of metal and glass measuring 65 inches diagonal that you can barely see from the side. Yes, in spite of its full-frontal gravitas, it measures only an inch thick at its edge, and a slightly more flexed 2 inches in the middle. It's gorgeous and ridiculous and designed to hang on a wall with no more protrusion than a dainty sketch in a frame—only it can blast Casino Royale at 1080p, 24 frames per second, while your face melts, and I'd have to sell my car twice over to buy it.

I love you Giz readers too much to stop with something that none of us can actually afford—and if you can afford it, you'll be decent enough to not let us know—so I called in the new slender 1080p models from Hitachi and JVC, too. As much lower-priced sets, I thought they'd just be the icing on Sharp's Limited Edition cake, but they turned out to be, in their own right, fine specimens. Let's review, shall we?

Who Thin?
"Ultrathin" is best defined, at this moment, as a TV that is mostly thinner than 2 inches.

Hitachi's Director's Series 1.5 UltraThin UT37X902 (37 inches listing for $1,900) got its name because it's an inch and a half thick across its entire panel. It is a monitor with speakers, but no tuner and the barest of inputs—one HDMI and one VGA—to help it keep trim. JVC's LT-46SL89 (46 inches for $2,400) on the other hand is a true TV, with digital HD tuner, 3 HDMI ports, 2 analog inputs with option of component, composite or S-Video, and a PC VGA input. That adds a bit to the girth—while most of its main panel is one-and-three-quarter-inches thick, there's a middle section that is a fat three inches.

To give you a sense of comparison, Pioneer's fairly slim and lightweight first-gen Kuro plasma is nearly 4 inches thick, with a slimming bezel that measures about half that. Pioneer isn't content there, though—its newest Kuro Elite monitors are quite trim, and you'll recall last CES the company showed off an unbelievably thin half-inch plasma screen that's presumably nowhere near production.

WTF Thin?
When I asked Sharp Aquos product manager Tony Favia what the fuss was about all of these new super thin TVs, he said that customers, particularly high-end ones, wanted a TV that could hang on a wall as flush as art, and even fill in for art as needed. That's why Sharp loaded the XS1 with paintings: When you push "Image" on the remote, up pop masterworks by Hokusai, Renoir, Seurat and Van Gogh, about 10 or 12 total. You can't leave the TV set on a particular image, though, despite the remote's discreetly stashed Play/Pause/Fwd/Rew transport buttons.

The XS1 achieves its thinness in part by farming out its functionality: An accompanying AV box, tethered by a single long HDMI cable, doesn't just handle all of the inputs, but the digital tuner and AquosNet internet access as well. It's so integrated into the TV's life that without it that, though I was able to run a video source directly, I couldn't even touch picture settings.

The thing about thin is that it's not cheap, and as such, manufacturers aren't at liberty to cut out performance to slim down the screen. This is probably why the biggest successes in TV sales—Sony, Panasonic, Samsung and LG—haven't expressed outright interest in marketing slim product. In fact, Sharp is smarter than JVC and Hitachi, aiming the thin concept at particularly spendy customers (Russian oil barons, professional golfers, Alaskan governors who may soon sign book and/or TV deals), rather than just going thin to differentiate itself at the Best Buy.

You Can't Afford It
The sleek all-metal Sharp 65-inch XS1 Limited Edition costs $16,000. The 52 incher costs $11,000. The build materials have a lot to do with the cost. A critically acclaimed, plastic-encased 3.7-inch thick Pioneer 50-inch plasma (that weighs 13 fewer pounds) lists for around $4,000, and sells for as little as $2,500. So you're not a sheikh, I'm not a sheikh, why are we talking about a sheikh's TV? Favia said the company went for a "no compromise" approach, and as hard as I looked, I found just one technical compromise, one most (sheikhs) could live with. If the damn thing didn't cost so much, the XS1 would be one of my favorite TVs ever.

Speaking of the Kuro, I placed a first-gen model side-by-side to calibrate and compare, and though the Sharp LCD wasn't always as perfect as the Pioneer plasma, I was surprised to see how well it kept up. Even though the LCD is equipped with 120Hz Fine Motion Enhanced blur reduction, I realized that during the action sequences in Casino Royale it went with native 24p (24-frames-per-second) movie playback. There wasn't any noticeable blur. In fact, thanks to the massive LCD's dazzlingly snappy 4-millisecond response time, I found that you really didn't need 120Hz at all.

Contrast Is King
In the all-important land of contrast, this Sharp scores big. Sharp has, in the past, been criticized for confusing contrast with an overuse of darkness. The XS1 is obviously a ground-up redesign, but in that arena in particular, I found I could tweak settings to walk the line between crushed and bleached blacks. You don't see charcoal gray when you're supposed to see pitch black, and yet dark textures are plainly visible.

This has much to do with the tight grid of RGB LEDs behind the main panel that light only what's needed. This technique has recently earned Sony and Samsung high praise for contrast and color reproduction, but it has a third crazy attribute: The 65-inch Sharp is capable of using less energy than the 46-inch JVC and even the 37-inch Hitachi, because it lights only what it needs and doesn't require the constant glare of a fluorescent light source.

When it comes to specific wattage demands, the Sharp hovered in the low to mid 100s with peaks upwards of 200W. The plasma was averaging 250 or higher, maxing out during the brightest scenes at 400W. The JVC's 46 incher could be set, using the backlight slider, anywhere from 98W to 200W, and the Hitachi similarly ranged from 83W to 171W. Though nice and slim, both of these sets use constantly lit fluorescent lamps.

While contrast on these smaller TVs didn't immediately seem as good, I got a sneaking suspicion that LED backlighting is, at least in part, a psychological trick. See, constant FL light means that, when watching 2.35:1 widescreen movies, you get a touch of gray in the bars at top and bottom, at least you do unless you dial down the backlight and sacrifice some whiteness. With LED backlighting, the LEDs behind the letterbox's black bars are simply turned off. You perceive that contrast to be better since there are fewer dead giveaways of less-than-perfect contrast.

I'm not trying to uncover a mystery here; I'm just saying that once I ignored the light shining through the black bars, I was happy enough with the contrast and color—demonstrated below by Disney's new Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray, our friend HD Guru Gary Merson's favorite color-gamut test source along with, naturally, Southland Tales—on both the JVC and Hitachi. Sometimes "good enough" is actually "good."

The Last LCD Issue
The funny thing is that two of the three test TVs suffered from an annoying LCD-related problem, and it wasn't the cheaper two. Both the Sharp and the JVC, which in many ways could not be more different as TVs, lost color saturation and even shifted in tint when viewed from the most peripheral angles.

Viewing angle issues are far from new: Projection TVs and LCDs have continued to suffer from them for years and years (in some cases decades). And maybe you think that it's no big deal, since most people watch a TV sitting head on. But I think that ultrathin TVs—intended to hang flush on walls, and without a pivoting mount—should be especially good looking at every angle where the picture is remotely visible. The Hitachi alone managed to hold its colors to the very edge, losing only brightness, as you'd expect.

New Hope
In the end, I think this review session did more to renew my faith in LCD technology than it did to sell me on the whole ultrathin thing. I spent years at line shows wondering why anyone would buy an LCD when plasma was an alternative, and even the amazing rise of Sony and Samsung in the LCD space was clouded by the simultaneous rise of all those extra-crappy savings-club TVs.

It's worth noticing that these ultrathin sets don't hail from the current Korean, Japanese or Chinese TV powerhouses. But as flagships from their companies, they do an even better job boding well for the whole industry, at least from a technical perspective. Plasma can still enjoy its high noon, but at a cost—nothing here looked better than the Kuro, but it took twice the energy to deliver that marginally better picture. And when it comes to hanging these bastards on the wall, well, let's see if Pioneer's still going to make good on that ultra-ultrathin promise from last CES. If not, these LCDs are going to be the slim-o-cizers to beat. That is, until the first 40-inch OLEDs hit the market. [Sharp Aquos Limited Edition XS1; Hitachi 1.5; JVC SuperSlim]

The Kuro still held strong with its deep, bottomless blacks, but the LaserVue is noticeably better on colors, especially reds. The LaserVue is also better able to handle scenes with tons of motion than the Kuro, especially during action scenes in Iron Man. You can see above that the Kuro, on the right, makes the red of Iron Man's suit look too simple, while the LaserVue on the left has all the dirt and scars of a real battle. Below, the LaserVue's reds really pop, able to show the difference between the hues in the woman's top and skirt much more clearly than the Kuro—which is even from Pioneer's demo disc.

We've seen the LaserVue reviewed before, but only while using Mitsubishi's hand-picked content, which doesn't necessarily make for the most accurate test. Kurtis and Cameron at The Tech Lounge got themselves a Panasonic DMP-BD30K Blu-Ray player and a copy of both Ice Age: Meltdown and Iron Man to test out color, clarity, and motion on the "normal" settings of both HDTVs. They came away impressed with the color, but not with the hefty $7000 price tag. Still, if you can afford it, and you don't mind its fatty rear-projection girth, the LaserVue is definitely the cream of the crop. [Tech Lounge]

Yeah, that's pretty black. Besides the deep colors, the sets will feature digital TV tuners, an advanced direct color filter, four HDMI inputs, four audio inputs, three D4 inputs, three video inputs, three S2 and one RGB video input. The 60-inch KRP-600A will cost about $8,830 and the 50-inch KRP-500A can be had for roughly $6,310. [Akihabara News]

During the review he broke down some of the technology behind the eye popping specs, as well as taking note of a feature set that is high on performance and low on ordinary TV functions. Being a monitor, the 65VX100U does not feature a built-in HDTV or analog tuner and standard definition source imputs like composite and S-video. However, it does include 4 HDMI jacks, one component video, one PC input (VGA), and a RS-232 jack.

As far as performance is concerned, Gary compared it side by side with the 50-inch Kuro and found that Pioneer won on ultimate black level and in the effectiveness of its anti-reflective screen, but the latter results in an purple-reddish tint that can be clearly seen when compared side by side with the 65VX100U. The Kuro also requires a higher level signal to come out of black, which obscured details that the Panasonic did not. All in all, it seems that if you have $10,000 to plunk down on a 65-inch flat panel, the 65VX100U should be at the top of your list. [HD Guru]

Though the first buyers will likely be rich dudes, the movie business is also going to be interested in it as a monitor, since it can handle 120% of the HDTV color gamut, enough to maybe get a good looking movie on a TV for one damn time. And let's not forget that Pioneer has shut down its own panel production lines and plans to go with Panasonic's. I asked if Pioneer would get a shot at the sweet new one—though there wasn't a straight answer, the sense I got was "probably not, at least not at first." Go Panasonic, kicking some TV ass!

While it looked like the Panasonic's better color reproduction, more accurate gamma, reduced power consumption and $1100 price advantage over last year's Kuros was going to give Pioneer a run for their money, the new Kuro has stepped up with improved noise reduction and matched color reproduction and power consumption to the Panasonic. Pile that onto what Kuro is most famous for—the blackest blacks on any TV anywhere.

Unfortunately, the King doesn't come cheap: At $5,000, it's $1,500 more than the Panasonic. For the full down and dirty, check out Gary's review. [HD Guru]

The projector demo was cool, because it's the first product Pioneer branded Kuro but didn't build itself. It was pretty impressive, though to be honest, there was no immediate comparison. Still, see for yourself: [Pioneer 2008 Kuro Launch on Giz]

More Kuro Than Kuro
On the plasma front, Pioneer's new Kuros fit midway on the contrast gamut between the previous generation and the "Extreme Contrast" panel shown at CES. The five-times-deeper blacks don't show up on the brightly lit sales floor as well as they do in a dimly lit home, but Pioneer's Russ Johnson says they will blow away videophiles, particularly with respect to color purity and gradations of shadow. The idea is that you will see more without colors being blown out, and without "hotspots" that make whites too bright. There will be two 1080p plasma TVs out next month, the 50" PDP-5020FD for $4,000 and the 60" PDP-6020FD for $5,500. They're both about 20% thinner than the previous Kuro models, now measuring 3.7" thick. Besides the features that it shares with the previous generation, these Kuros have a new remote control and new HD GUI for better ease-of-use. We're also told they have some networking capabilities—Home Media Gallery plus DLNA compatibility with PCs and other network devices. More on that when we check them out.In the Elite line, Pioneer is rolling out souped-up versions of the above TVs at $1,000 premiums—the 50" PRO-111FD and 60" PRO-151FD. The bigger news from a gadget perspective is that there will be two plasma monitors that are even thinner. They will be 50% as thick as the original Kuro, measuring just 2.5". As monitors, there have no ATSC tuners or speakers, but they will be highly customizable thanks to some serious connectivity and remote access tools. It's a rich man's product, for sure, but worth knowing it's hitting the market, since the tech will eventually trickle down.That Projector Rings a Bell
As for the KRF-9000FD projector that snuck out at the European launch, some were smart enough to spot it as a re-branded JVC RS2 or HD100, the two so similar they're referred to as "twins". Johnson tells us that the company chose the LCOS projector because its performance was "consistent with the deep black levels" of the Kuro line. Pioneer added some tuning options to jive with Kuro deep-black benchmarks, but at this time the company did not do too much to make it a product distinct from JVC's. It will be branded simply as the Pioneer Elite Kuro Projector, and it will sell for $9,000, as early as June via the Elite dealer network.

Why No LCDs???
Johnson was good enough to shed some light on the missing LCDs. It turns out, Pioneer Europe has a different LCD supplier than Pioneer USA. Pioneer's European supplier—Philips?—has Pioneer's global LCD partner—Sharp—supplies different product to Europe than it does to the US. Sharp supplies 1080p LCDs in 32", 37" and 46" sizes with 100Hz frame mode to Pioneer Europe, but can't bring them to the US—even for itself. Of course in the US, it would be 120Hz, not 100Hz, a PAL spec. Those are the baseline requirements for Pioneer to work its Kuro magic. These requirements can't be met by the US LCD affiliate, says Johnson, "not even in their own line-up", but he does expect them to come eventually. Since Philips is no longer in the US TV biz, and since Sharp appears to be Pioneer's other LCD partner, I guess we'll have to wait until Sharp catches up.

That Kuro Secret Sauce
All this hullabaloo about Pioneer quitting panel manufacturing and instead buying panels from Panasonic made us ask Johnson exactly how Kuro will stay alive, and he surprised us with some factoids:
• The second-gen Kuros gets the 5X deeper black with the same panel, plus better filtering and video processing.
• Even the "Extreme Contrast" CES panel, the one that freaked us out, was based on "current glass," and not some futuristic laboratory panel. "It's how you fire the pixel," says Johnson. We don't know exactly what that means, but it's strangely reassuring. [Pioneer USA]

Like Pioneer told us before, while they're sharing some tech secrets and even swapping engineers to develop better plasmas for the future, the processing part of the Kuro magic will stay in Pioneer's hands. But, despite lower production costs, don't expect cheaper Kuros for a while—the move's to make Pioneer more profitable. We'll start seeing the co-developed sets in Fall 2009. [Impress]

The 1080p projector is for screens starting at 60 inches, and Pioneer promises that it's "in line with the KURO benchmark of deep black levels and rich colours, resulting in the unmistakable look of film." We hope so, given the assurances that Pioneer's restructuring wouldn't lead to the death of a great brand.

KURO Front Projector for large size screens

Developed specifically for cinephiles with a dedicated home cinema room, the KURO projector is configured for screen sizes starting from 60 inches. Aside from displaying signature KURO style cosmetics, it supports advanced calibration and is in line with the KURO benchmark of deep black levels and rich colours, resulting in the unmistakable look of film. It incorporates LCOS 1080p technology, producing the highest native contrast ratio. Based on 3 x 0.7 inch D-ILA, it boasts a wide lens shift capacity and dual HDMI 1.3 support.

KURO LCD TVs for smaller screen sizes
The KURO LCD TV range is 'HD ready 1080p' compliant with 100Hz frame mode, offering an unmatched fast moving picture performance. What is more, the LCD TVs feature an anti-reflective filter, triple HDMI 1.3 support and a specially tuned, high-standard picture quality. This latest Pioneer product is available in three sizes: 32 inch, 37 inch and 46 inch and differentiates itself from KURO plasma TVs in terms of design with an attractive 'aluminum look' finish.

The KURO Front Projector will be in the shops as of April this year. The KURO LCD TVs are available in three sizes of which the 32-inch and 37-inch TVs will be on sale as of August, the 46 inch model will be launched later this year.

KURO Plasma TVs for absolute picture quality The new 2008 range of KURO plasma TVs exceeds the boundaries of what was thought possible in picture quality performance. The second generation KURO pushes closer to absolute black by further reducing the idling luminance and improving black levels five times over the previous 2007 KURO models. This has enabled Pioneer to accurately reproduce even higher contrast levels and deeper colours within the high-definition colour spectrum. The all-new 2008 KURO plasma TVs are available in 50 and 60-inch (availability depending on region).

Like I said, we can't figure out exactly what Pioneer's US division has done to get moved to the back of the line as far as SWEET NEW PLASMAS go, but we're looking into it now. [Pioneer EU]

The foggy "sometime this year" release date has narrowed to Q3, so sometime late summer, though that's about all Mitsubishi is spilling aside from the fact the line's official name is LaserVue. Price and exact D-Day are coming in June, giving you a couple of months to scrounge some pennies together in anticipation. We're already drooling to do our own best TV ever side-by-side with this thing, 'cause whoever loses, we win. [HD Guru]

They'll also do Blu-ray players together, and Japan Sharp Cellphones will work with Pioneer's in-car nav systems. The first fruits of such collabs will be seen in CEATEC 2008 in Fall.

Progress on Business Alliance with Sharp Corporation
As part of a comprehensive business and capital alliance formed by Pioneer and Sharp Corporation in 2007, the two companies are conducting joint product development by making effective use of each other's resources in their respective fields of expertise. The overriding goal is to enhance the corporate value of both companies.

In the field of flat-panel TVs, for example, Pioneer is taking part in Sharp's development of acoustic systems for ultra-thin, flat-panel TVs. By leveraging its acoustic technologies built up over many years, Pioneer aims to develop acoustic systems employing ultra-thin speakers that still achieve outstanding sound quality for supply to Sharp. Furthermore, Pioneer will be supplied by Sharp with LCD TVs based on its superior technologies. We will launch these LCD TVs first in Europe this fall and steadily expand our lineup of LCD TVs. Plans also call for engineers from Pioneer and Sharp to team up to develop LCD TVs that carry on the legacy of the Pioneer "KURO" series in terms of high picture and sound quality.

This project will give Pioneer access to Sharp's extensive expertise in LCD TVs, while promoting joint development of digital tuners, platforms and technologies for realizing high picture quality. The goal is to develop value-added products and raise the efficiency of development activities at both companies.

In the optical disc field, Pioneer and Sharp have agreed to join forces to expand their respective Blu-ray Disc-related product businesses. This step takes the alliance beyond merely supplying existing products such as DVD players and DVD recorders to each other. Joint development of pickups and drives for Blu-ray Disc players/recorders, will bolster the two companies' vertically integrated business models spanning devices to end products. Cost reductions resulting from more efficient development and volume growth will in turn contribute to business expansion. Here too, Pioneer and Sharp are resolved to build even stronger ties by efficiently conducting joint development.

In car electronics fields, Pioneer and Sharp plan to jointly develop products based on Sharp's "only one device" concept. The two companies will make a point of enhancing device operability to propose new kinds of automotive passenger cabin environments. We also plan to propose new forms of value by linking Sharp's AQUOS™ mobile phone concept with our car navigation system technologies. We want to use these joint development projects to drive further business expansion at both companies in the car electronics field.

The concrete achievements of these initiatives will be showcased at CEATEC JAPAN 2008 this fall and at various product presentations.

According to Russ, the Kuro recipe for its ultra-blackness is "three core elements—truthfully, all three are just as important—the filter, the processor" and the panel. And all they're outsourcing is the panel, or in Russ's words, "just the glass." Pioneer's former leg up on the panel itself—in-case cell structure—is being used by pretty much everybody in the biz now, so there's not really a "dramatic difference" from panel to panel.

The panel supplier—probably Panasonic, since it's the only one they've announced they're holding discussions with—is in fact "going to learn or we're going to disclose a few things about our module so they can apply the correct specification to us." But it's the processor and software that actually directs how the panel fires, so most of its secret formula will remain that way. It might be easier to reverse engineer the software and filter side of the recipe if they know what's in Pioneer's panels though.

Bottom line though, Pioneer plans on maintaining the same standards and their "goal to get that extreme contrast model and combine it with a new, unique form factor" is "unwavering." The last sets we'll see with in-house Pioneer panels are coming out this June, and they'll be announced in May. We'll see outsourced sets sometime in 2009, which is when we could also see the first Pioneer LCDs in the US, but they won't bear the Kuro name unless it "has the DNA of Kuro." Lastly, the lower production costs might not immediately translate into cheaper sets—after all the move is make plasma profitable again.

However, we have judged that maintaining the cost competitiveness of plasma display panels at projected sales volumes will be difficult going forward. Accordingly, we have decided to terminate in-house plasma display panel production and to procure these panels externally, after panel production for our next series of models is complete...Pioneer is currently in discussions on the feasibility of procuring panel modules that may incorporate the Company's proprietary technologies.

Someone else—probably Panny—will have access to the magic Kuro dust. Will their combined strengths—the best panels in the world, cheaper manufacturing—be able to hold off the LCD onslaught and the pressures of the market? Better than on their own, but even LCD-makers are buddying up en masse to stay strong. [Pioneer]